The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Nepeta plant botanically known as Nepeta hybrid and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Balneplud’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Hem, the Netherlands during August 2015. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Nepeta cultivars having a long flowering season with an upright-mounded growth habit.
The new Nepeta cultivar is the result of cross-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is ‘Manchu Blue’, not patented, characterized by its medium violet-blue colored flowers having dark violet-colored calyxes, medium green-colored foliage, and vigorous, upright growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is ‘Blue Dreams’, not patented, characterized by its medium violet-blue colored flowers with medium violet-colored calyxes, dark green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, upright-mounded growth habit. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during July 2016 in a controlled environment in Hem, the Netherlands.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since July 2016 in Hem, the Netherlands and Elburn, Ill. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.